THE INVISIBLE BOY (1957)
Tagline: War Against the World from an Eerie Platform Suspended in Space!
(Family, Sci-Fi, Dangerously High Levels Of Dry Humor) [G]
Note: This movie was never given an MPAA, but if it came out today, it would be a [G].
In order to equal the number of neuronic circuits in my own cerebral cortex we'd be obliged to build something slightly larger than the planet Jupiter.
In this one, a kid named Timmie struggling to find success in school and hates to study is put in front of a Super Computer by his scientist father just to see if it will improve his intelligence. He becomes incredibly smart in a short period of time and even gets made invisible. The Super Computer convinces Timmie to get Robby The Robot (which apparently traveled back in time) back into working order so that it can use Robby to take over the world. Yep. That is pretty much what is going on here.
First off, this is a really freakin weird movie. I would say it’s even more bizarre than THE TWONKY which is definitely on another level when it comes to bizarre 50s sci-fi. Not only does this one have invisibility, but it also has time travel and also manages to get space involved. We also get the first ever attempt to show a father spanking his child that I have seen in any 50’s movie, only the child “Timmie” is invisible.
One thing I love about the 50s is how the computers basically had to take up an entire room to do super simple stuff. The Super Computer design in this movie is actually pretty impressive and Robby The Robot of course is iconic. It was also pretty expensive, which is at least part of the reason they wanted to use Robby in other projects aside from FORBIDDEN PLANET.
Acting wise Richard Eyer is fine as Timmie. He was also the genie in THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. Diane Brewster is decent as Mary Merrinoe, but something just felt off about most of this cast. Philip Abbott plays Dr. Tom Marrinoe and seems even more off than Diane. I am not sure if they just didn’t know what to do with this crazy script or what was going on. Some of the secondary characters even look like they didn’t want to be on set. This is not an indictment of these actors and actresses in other productions but yeah, something is just wonky with this one.
I wanted to like this more than I did. Robby always kind of gives me that sense of childlike wonder that I watch these movies for, but any shot he isn’t in just comes across as thrown-together nonsense. Even for “sci-fi”, everything in this movie that is meant to be explained “scientifically” sounds like it was written by someone that really wanted the elements to work but couldn’t think of how they would. The result is a jumbled mess of a movie.
Overall I can see kids under 8 liking this if they don’t mind black and white, but most other audiences I don’t see really embracing this movie at all. That might be why in the 4 or 5 sci-fi circles I am in a lot online never even mention this film. The pacing is off, the direction is off, the storyline is very rough, and the parenting even outside the weird invisible spanking scene (discipline coming from righteous love is never bad in a parent-to-child relationship, it’s just out of place in this thing) is near the worst ever filmed outside of anything TOHO does.
I have to give this thing a 2 out of 7, there are just very few redeemable qualities about it.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER (MGM) AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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